Leading conservation charity, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, has welcomed the decision taken by the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Committee to scrutinize how deer management agreements, which help control deer numbers across Scotland, are impacting on biodiversity, habitats and ultimately climate change.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust believes that in some parts of Scotland deer numbers are too high and this puts pressure on Scotland’s wildlife and ecosystems because of the damage caused by overgrazing and trampling.

Head of Policy for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Dr. Maggie Keegan, said:” The Scottish Wildlife Trust wholeheartedly backs the Rural Affairs Committee decision to investigate the impacts of deer on Scotland’s biodiversity and climate change targets.

“The Scottish Wildlife Trust believes a crucial step in determining how many deer to cull in any given area must be to assess the impacts on habitats of the current local deer population – this requires habitat monitoring.

“The Scottish Wildlife Trust knows from site condition monitoring of our nationally and internationally protected sites that nearly a quarter have been damaged because of overgrazing and trampling pressure.

“It is difficult to see how Scotland will achieve its 2020 biodiversity target – or its commitment to increasing woodland cover as part of mitigating and adapting to climate change – without getting deer numbers under control.”

To read the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s policy of sustainable deer management please click here.